The following article discusses Goju-Ryu history from the times of
Ryu Ryu Ko and Higashionna Kanryo Sensei to the latter half of this century.
The main focus of the article is on the life and times of Miyagi Chojun
Sensei and his development of the Goju-Ryu Karate-Do system. This article
originally appeared in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (Vol. 3,
No. 3, 1994) and appears here in a slightly edited form.

n the early part of this century, a style of
karate was developed on Okinawa that made it possible for many people
to learn the benefits of a traditional self defense system. Eventually
becoming known as Goju-Ryu (the hard/soft style), the art combined traditional
Okinawan techniques with both internal and external Chinese principles.
The soft, internal Chinese styles concentrate on circular movements and
the development of qi (vital energy), while external, hard principles
rely upon physical strength. The combination of these principles makes
Goju-Ryu a close range, infighting system that concentrates on efficiency
of movement as well as personal development.

Master Chojun Miyagi, the founder of Okinawan Goju-Ryu karate do, saw
the martial arts as being more than just effective methods of self defense,
and the system that he developed reflected this belief. Through the influence
of Master Miyagi, Goju-Ryu karate became an educational subject that could
be taught in schools, and the creation of new katas (forms) made
the art more understandable to the public. Miyagi thus became one of the
pioneers that brought karate out of its exclusively Okinawan enclave of
relatively few practitioners to worldwide acceptance.

Devoting his life to the promotion of the martial arts, Miyagi reportedly
made more than ten trips to China, made more than seven to the Japanese
mainland, and also visited Hawaii and Korea. It has been said that he
spent millions of dollars traveling to promote karate and helping friends
with their debts. Since Miyagi was prone to seasickness, he seldom traveled
alone and often was not fully recovered from his ailment when giving a
demonstration or lecture.

Very pleasant in nature, Miyagi was called "Bushi Miyagusuku"
("Gentleman Warrior Miyagi") on Okinawa. Possessed of tremendous
physical strength, he was known far and wide for his extraordinary gripping
power and performance of kata that displayed his great devotion to martial
arts training. However, Miyagi's gentle manner was his strongest asset.
Despite stories that may contain more fable than fact, Miyagi never fought,
keeping a promise to his teacher that he would not use the martial arts
to hurt another human being.

THE EARLY YEARS

Born Matsu Miyagi on April 25, 1888, at Higashi Machi, Hana, the son
of Chosho Miyagi came to inherit the fortune of one of the wealthiest
families on Okinawa ("Miyagi" is the Japanese derivative of
the Okinawan name "Miyagusuku"). Involved with the importing
of pharmaceuticals, the family owned two trading ships, which were used
to supply the government and private merchants. Miyagi was adopted at
the age of five by an uncle after the death of the main successor to the
family, and his first name was changed to Chojun, as he became heir to
the family fortune. Being born into great wealth allowed Miyagi in later
years to devote all his time to study and traveling to promote the martial
arts.

At the age of eleven, the strongly built youth began training under karate
master Aragaki Ryuko. This early instruction consisted mainly of exercises
designed to develop the body, using Okinawan implements such as the chishi
(stone lever weight), nigiri-game (clay gripping jars), and makiwara
(punching post). From this strong foundation, Miyagi later carried over
the principles of strength development to his own teachings, and he always
encouraged his students to engage in supplementary weight training. As
a physical culture enthusiast, Miyagi developed scientific methods of
exercising that reflect his early training, which stressed the importance
of a sound body.

In 1901, Miyagi was introduced to Kanryo Higashionna (1853-1916), a master
of Naha-Te, who had studied in China before returning to Okinawa, where
he became very well known as a teacher of the martial arts. Miyagi studied
under Higashionna for fifteen years and became the successor to the art
form that eventually evolved into form Goju-Ryu karate.

Master Higashionna
became interested in Chinese boxing while working for an import/export
company, a job which enabled him to travel back and forth from Okinawa
to China. An 1868 trip to Fuzhou in Fujian Province in southern China
resulted in his studying under martial artist Ryu Ryu Ko, a master of
Shaolin Kempo of the Southern School. When he eventually returned to Okinawa,
Higashionna established a style of self-defense known as Naha-Te, which
was a combination of Chinese Kempo and Okinawan techniques. With his home
in Nishi Machi serving as a dojo, Higashionna's fame as a teacher spread,
and he became the martial arts instructor for the royal family. In 1905,
Higashionna taught the physical and philosophical values of his art at
a public high school in Naha.

A modest, quiet man, Master Higashionna stood only five foot one inch
tall, but was very strongly built. He was called "Kensei"
("Sacred Fists") on Okinawa and was known for his extremely
fast footwork and low kicking techniques. However, Higashionna believed
that the integral purpose of the martial arts was to help society, not
to hurt people. This philosophy was passed on to his students, especially
to Miyagi, on whom the lesson was never lost.

Chojun Miyagi left Dai Ichi Junior High School in Naha in the ninth grade
to study Naha-Te exclusively and became the only student of Higashionna
to learn all the katas of the system. Under Higashionna's instruction,
a student would usually concentrate on only one kata over the years and
become highly proficient in the particular movements; however, Miyagi
was able to learn all aspects of Naha-Te. The training was extremely harsh,
with a concentration on the Sanchin ("Three Battles")
kata, which is a breathing form that involves dynamic tension. Miyagi
was one of the few who remained a student of Higashionna, despite the
rigors of a demanding schedule.

After marrying
at the age of nineteen, Miyagi entered the army in 1908 and served the
Fifth Division of Kumamoto for three years. In 1915, he made his first
trip to China, going to Fuzhou to study Chugoku Kempo, accompanied by
his friend Gokenki (1886-1940), who adopted the Japanese name "Yoshikawa"
and taught a southern Shaolin form of White Crane in his tea shop in Naha.
It is possible that Gokenki's influence on the young Miyagi may be seen
in the katas that were developed for Goju-Ryu, since they contain movements
similar to those of White Crane. This Chinese system is also known as
Pai-Hao Quan or, in the Japanese translation, as Hakutsuru-Ken
and was developed by Fang Chi Liang, a woman who lived in Tan Yong Chun
in Fujian Province.

Miyagi's relationship with his teacher was a close one, as his wealth
allowed him to house Higashionna and pay for instruction. Since he remained
in the constant company of Higashionna, Miyagi was able to learn all the
Naha-Te kata under the master's close scrutiny. Saddened by the death
of Higashionna in October of 1916, Miyagi took care of all funeral arrange
meets, then went back to China in search of the dojo of Ryu Ryu Ko but
was unsuccessful in the attempt. When Miyagi returned to Okinawa in 1917,
he became instructor at the Okinawa Ken Police Training Center, Naha City
Commercial School, Okinawa Normal School, and the Prefectural Health Center.

EARLY GOJU-RYU DEVELOPMENT

The influences of Chinese styles combined with Naha-Te principles eventually
formed the Goju-Ryu system of karate. Having studied hard, external styles
along with the soft, internal systems of Yi Quan, Pakua Chang,
and Taijiquan, Chojun Miyagi used his extensive knowledge of the
martial arts to develop Goju-Ryu. Adding closed fists to the Sanchin forms,
Miyagi also created the Tensho ("Turning Palm") kata to emphasize
softness in movement. Like his teacher, Higashionna, Miyagi strictly believed
in the benefits of the Sanchin Kata but included the softer White Crane
influenced techniques in his instruction. However, Sanchin always made
up the heart of Miyagi's art. Designed to train and build the body through
breathing tech piques, the physical strength developed through the practice
of Sanchin remains a characteristic that distinguishes traditional Okinawan
Goju-Ryu from other, less physical styles.

Chojun Miyagi with a group of high school students.
Note the different types of equipment that were used for
strength training, which was always a major part
of Miyagi's instruction.

To describe his system, Miyagi compared it to a willow tree standing
against the wind, remaining stable because of its strong roots, while
the branches flow and give with the force. The twelve katas originally
taught by Miyagi, which have their foundations in China, still form the
basis for Goju-Ryu today, though the names may differ in translation from
Chinese to Japanese to English. Along with the aforementioned Sanchin
and Tensho, the other kata include Gekisai-Ichi and Gekisai-Ni
("Attack and Smash I&II"), Saifa ("Smash and
Break"), Seienchin ("To Grab and Pull In Battle"),
Sanseiru ("Thirty six Hands"), Seipai ("Eighteen
Hands"), Shisochin ("Four Directions Battle"), Seisan
("Thirteen Hands"), Kururunfa ("To Destroy with
Ancient Mantis Techniques"), and Suparinpei ("108 Hands")
forms.

The movements contained within Goju-Ryu kata are intended for self-defense
and not for sport. Short, circular blocks, powerful holds and locks, efficient
punching maneuvers, and kicking techniques targeted to the lower body
characterize the art that Miyagi so carefully developed. These techniques
are not flashy or acrobatic, which makes Goju-Ryu an excellent style for
defending oneself in a street situation.

As a teacher, Miyagi was very strict and placed a great emphasis on basics.
His dojo was actually a courtyard surrounded by a stone wall and illuminated
by oil lamps, where kata were taught step by step and a student did not
progress to the next movement until thoroughly learning the previous one.
Miyagi would not accept payment for his instruction and did not promote
his students, since there was no ranking system.

Among those who studied under Miyagi and later carried on his original
teachings were Seiko Higa, Meitoku Yagi, Seikichi Toguchi, and Eiichi
Miyazato. Another student, Jitsuei Yogi, was the teacher of Gogen Yamaguchi,
who went on to gain fame in his own right with the development of Japanese
Goju-Ryu karate. On occasion, Yamaguchi also sought advice and training
instruction from Meitoku Yagi throughout the years. Higa, who had trained
under Higashionna since the age of thirteen, assisted Miyagi when Miyagi
became successor to the Naha-Te system and was the only person ever authorized
by Miyagi to teach Goju-Ryu karate.

Like Higashionna, Miyagi believed in teaching the Sanchin kata for an
extended period of time, then instructing a student in another form according
to that student's physical build and personal preferences. For example,
Yagi learned Suparinpei, Toguchi was taught Seipai, and Miyazato studied
Kururunfa as a second kata. Unlike the Goju-Ryu testing system of today,
Miyagi picked the second kata to be taught to a student and did not follow
any predetermined regimen. The organizational ranking system of Miyagi's
art was developed after his death in 1953.

While Miyagi was sought out for his instruction by many potential students,
not many stayed due to the extremely demanding procedures that made up
the original Goju-Ryu training regimen. Demanding as much from his students
as he did from himself, Miyagi taught in an intense manner that belied
his gentle nature. Stories abound concerning the necessity of hanging
ropes above toilet facilities, because students would be so tired from
the hard training that they could not arise from a squatting position
if they did not have something to hang onto. Also, it was said that Miyagi's
students were always recognizable in public bath houses due to the red
marks that were left as a result of Sanchin kata testing.

PROMOTING KARATE AND NAMING THE ART

Exemplified by his public demonstrations and performances in front of
royalty, it seems that Miyagi's primary goal was to make more people aware
of the benefits of studying a martial art. In 1921, Miyagi impressed Crown
Prince Hirohito with a demonstration of Naha-Te that was part of a ceremony
marking the prince's stopover in Okinawa's Nakagusuku Bay while on tour.
Four years later, Miyagi was equally impressive in performing for Prince
Chichibu. As he became more famous, Miyagi was able to meet people who
could help him realize his desire to open up the Okinawan arts to the
public.

In 1922, judo founder Jigoro Kano gave a lecture on Okinawa that greatly
influenced Miyagi. Several years later, Kano returned to the largest island
in the Ryukyu archipelago and saw Miyagi demonstrate his unique skills
in the name of Okinawan martial arts. That demonstration became legendary
in Okinawan martial art circles. It is said that Miyagi remained uninjured
while being struck with a bo (long staff) and displayed his tremendous
gripping strength by tearing the bark off a tree with his fingers and
ripping pieces off a large slab of meat with his bare hands. The performance
was not forgotten by Kano, who would use his influence to allow Miyagi
to take part in Japanese martial arts demonstrations.

Miyagi's first trip to Japan took place in 1928, when he lectured and
demonstrated at Kansai, Kyoto, and Ritsumeikan universities. Returning
to Okinawa in 1929, he became instructor at the Prefectural Police Dojo
and later at Naha Courthouse, Prefectural Physical Culture Association,
and the Prefectural Teachers' Training College. It was around this time
that it became necessary to name the system that was growing in popularity
through out Okinawa and Japan.

As to the naming of Miyagi's system, it has been recorded that his senior
student, Jinan Shinzato (1900-1945), was demonstrating in Japan when he
was asked the name of his style of self defense. Unable to accurately
reply, he returned to Okinawa and consulted Miyagi, who came up with the
title "Goju-Ryu," taken from a line in the Bubishi (called
Wu Bei Zhi in Chinese), a record of the eight precepts of Chinese
Kempo. In this way, Miyagi became the first Okinawan karate master not
to name a system after the area in which it was practiced (such as Naha-Te,
Shuri-Te, and Tomari-Te).

Miyagi performed for the Dai Nippon Butokukai (Greater Japan Martial
Arts Association, the official governing body for Japanese martial arts)
in 1930, and at the Sainei Budo Temple in 1932. His influence then led
to the official recognition of karate as a martial art of Japan with the
formation of the Dai Nippon Butokukai Okinawa Branch, to which he was
appointed representative. Miyagi received a commendation from the Japan
Ministry of Education for outstanding service in the physical culture
field in 1934, the same year he published a paper on karate and made a
trip to Hawaii to promote the art.

Miyagi called for martial arts unity and expressed the opinion that karate
instruction should be made available to the rest of the world during a
lecture in Japan's Sakaisuji Meiji Syoten Hall in January of 1936. The
Goju-Ryu founder also stated his belief that karate could not grow with
solely classical kata and that new kata should be developed to help the
public learn the martial art. The Gekisai Ichi and Gekisai Ni kata were
created with this intention around 1940. Miyagi originally planned to
develop a series of Gekisai forms, but World War II interrupted training
and instruction on Okinawa and the other kata were never developed.

Miyagi received a medal for excellence in the martial arts from the Japanese
Ministry of Education in 1936 and also became the first person in karate
to be granted the kyoshi (assistant professor) degree from the
Dai Nippon Butokukai. In October of the same year, he attended a conference
that adopted "karate" as official name of the martial art of
Okinawa. A trip to Shanghai for further study of the Chinese arts took
place, with Miyagi staying for over two months.

Further promotion of karate took place in 1937, as Prince Moriwasa Nashimoto,
commissioner of the Dai Nippon Butokukai, authorized Miyagi and several
judo headmasters to create the Dai Nippon Butokukai Karate Jukkyoshi
(Greater Japan Martial Arts Karate Teachers' Association). This organization
would regulate karate throughout Japan. At the time, karate fell under
the same classification as judo; therefore, in order to gain independence,
Miyagi and a group of Okinawan karate masters established the Okinawan
Karate Do Preservation Society. Those founding the association included
Choshin Chibana, Chomo Hanashiro, Choki Motobu, Shinpan Shiroma, and Kentsu
Yabu.

WAR AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS

Master Miyagi taught in Japan for the last time in 1943, when he lectured
in Kyoto at Ritsumeikan University. Shortly thereafter, karate instruction
was interrupted by the war that was raging in the Pacific. Jinan Shinzato,
Miyagi's senior student, was killed during the early fighting of the Battle
of Okinawa in 1945, and Miyagi's third son, Jun, also died in this most
bloody conflict.

Karate spread throughout Japan and Okinawa in the wake of the devastation
created by World War II, and Miyagi resumed teaching in 1946, using the
backyard of his home in Tsuboya Cho as his dojo. Though plagued by ill
health in the form of high blood pressure and a heart condition, Miyagi
continued to promote his art and was appointed as an official of the Okinawan
Minsei Taiiku Ken (Okinawan Democratic Athletic Association) and as director
of the Okinawan Civil Association of Physical Education. He also taught
at the Okinawan police academy at the time.

According to Seikichi Toguchi, who studied under both Miyagi and Seiko
Higa, it was in 1952 or 1953 that Miyagi was made president of the (Goju-Ryu
Shinko-Kai, an organization that was established for the purpose of
promoting the art. At this time, Miyagi's students approached him and
asked if he would grant promotions, feeling that karate lagged behind
the Japanese martial arts of judo and kendo because there was no formalized
ranking system. However, Miyagi still refused to grant promotions to any
of his students. As a person of great humility, Miyagi believed himself
unworthy of granting black belts and that a true black belt degree should
only be awarded by a member of the emperor's family or a sanctioning body
such as the Butokukai.

Master Miyagi died of a heart attack on October 8, 1953, at the age of
sixty five. Since his death was so sudden, there was no official successor
to Goju-Ryu named. Seiko Higa, who was always considered as more of an
assistant to Miyagi than a student, was accepted as the master's successor
by all the senior students and continued to teach Goju-Ryu until his death
in 1966.

CARRYING ON THE TRADITION

After the death of Miyagi, his senior students formed an association
known as the All Okinawan Goju-Kai, which was a reorganization of the
Goju-Ryu Shinko-Kai, and a promotional ranking system for the art was
established. Yagi, Toguchi, and Miyazato assumed the hachi-dan
(eighth degree) black belt ranking, and various schools of Goju-Ryu were
opened, with Yagi teaching at his Meibukan school, Toguchi at Shoreikan,
and Miyazato at Jundokan. Yagi, as Miyagi's senior student after the death
of Jinan Shinzato, came to inherit the master's gi (uniform) and black
belt from the Miyagi family in 1963. Eventually, all three senior students
of Miyagi, as heads of their respective Goju-Ryu organizations, were elevated
to the rank of tenth degree black belt.

As the only person Miyagi ever authorized to teach Goju-Ryu, Seiko Higa
had opened up a dojo in Shioizumi Village, Naha, in 1931, and moved the
school to Matsushita Village also in Naha two years later. Higa was awarded
the renshi (teaching) grade from the Dai Nippon Butokokai upon his return
from the South Pacific island of Saipan, where he taught Goju-Ryu from
1937 to 1939. In 1956, Higa became the first vice president of the All-Okinawan
Karate-Do Renmei, an organization that represented the major Okinawan
karate styles. Choshin Chibana was the founding president of this group,
which was renamed the All Okinawan Karate-Do Federation in 1967 and remains
the largest karate organization on Okinawa today.

Higa received the hanshi grade by mutual consent of all members of the
All Okinawan Karate Do Renmei in 1958 and built the Shodokan dojo. Formerly
an elementary school teacher, Higa was serving as a policeman in Itoman
City when he formed the International Karate and Kobudo Federation, also
in 1958. This organization was established for the purpose of researching
Goju-Ryu and unifying the katas. After World War II, Higa opened a dojo
in Itoman and taught at Itoman High School.

As one of the more popular systems of karate today, Goju-Ryu has now
become accepted around the world. But with this increased popularity comes
the problem of authenticity, since there are numerous organizations and
individuals, especially in the United States, that operate under the Goju-Ryu
name that actually have little or no connection with the lineage of Chojun
Miyagi. Though claiming otherwise, such systems may teach in a manner
that is a far cry from the original instruction of Miyagi, sacrificing
through a lack of traditional knowledge the basics and integral components
of the art that were so carefully developed by the founder and followed
by his successors.

It is the task of today's Goju-Ryu schools to maintain the principles
set forth by Masters Higashionna and Miyagi so many years ago and by their
successors such as Master Masanobu Shinjo. The art that was born on the
island of Okinawa has now spread worldwide, seemingly in keeping with
the wishes of the founder, who always believed that karate should be made
available to the public. As such, Goju-Ryu is first and foremost a means
of personal development that builds the confidence to enable someone to
become an outstanding citizen. In developing the concepts of Goju-Ryu
to a high degree, Master Miyagi served society by making life better for
anyone who has the opportunity to train in his system.